by, at leastin part, optimizing the energy system over multiple decades

Examine the competition among energy technologies,includingrenewables

Expansive system boundaries and multi-decadal timescales

Encoded with a set of structured, self-consistent assumptions anddecision rules

Such models have emerged as a key tool for the analysis

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Model Types

Computable General Equilibrium:Adjusts all prices untilall supplies and demands in all markets are balancedsimultaneously. Technologies often representedstylistically by production functions (output as a functionof capital, labor, land, resources)

They are not forecasts, projections or predictions of what is to come. Nor are theypreferred views of the future. Rather, they are plausible alternative futures: theyprovide reasonable and consistent answers to the ‘what if?’ questions relevant tobusiness.